Lighting systems comprising a plurality of lighting devices acting as nodes in a network of such devices under control of a system controller are well-known. Such systems for instance may be deployed to create dynamic light effects in order to create an appealing aesthetic effect in a space in which the lighting system is deployed. For example, such a lighting system may comprise a plurality of lighting nodes in which the individual nodes are connected in a bus, e.g. a DMX or DALI bus, or a daisy chain architecture for power and control delivery by the system controller. The locations of the lighting nodes in such a lighting system may be known to facilitate straightforward mapping of the addresses of the respective nodes to their locations. Another example of such a lighting system are so-called SWARM architectures in which lighting effects may jump from node to node under control of a system controller, which typically requires knowledge of the location of the respective lighting devices in the space in which the lighting system is deployed.
An example of such an architecture is provided in WO 2014/100832 A2, which discloses a lighting system operable as a patterning system. The system includes transportable nodes, each having a unique identifier, and including an element having first and second states and a transceiver for receiving an element command signal. A transmitter sends a query command to the transportable nodes to validate the identifier against the database and activate validated transportable nodes to receive the signal. A controller sends the signal to activated transportable nodes to bring the plurality of nodes into one of their states to form a pattern. The controller can send pattern data to the transportable nodes, where each acts as a discrete part of an image array comprised of the transportable nodes, with each brought into one of its states in response to respective pattern data to create a pattern.
It is however not necessary that the location of the individual lighting nodes in the lighting system are known; examples of lighting systems for deploying dynamic lighting effects based on wearable and/or battery-powered lighting nodes having variable locations are also known although the dynamic lighting effects that can be created with such systems are of course more limited.
A characteristic shared by such lighting systems is that the bandwidth between the system controller and the various lighting devices under its control is typically limited. This can pose problems in deployment scenarios where the lighting system is to render highly dynamic lighting content, as this typically requires large amounts of configuration data to be transmitted over the links between the system controller and the various lighting devices for which the bandwidth of these links is insufficient.
Patent application EP 1870802 A1 relates to a method for communicating data suitable for use with a plurality of persons grouped within a geographical area, each person being at a location within the geographical area. The method comprises providing a plurality of persons with an individual lighting module, and communicating data to each of the lighting modules. The data communicated relates to an image to be displayed by a combination of the lighting modules. The data is thus pixelated data in an image. The image is provided from an image source such as an image generator and parts of the image are distributed among the individual lighting modules, e.g. via wireless communication. The method may furthermore comprise determining the position of the individual lighting modules before communicating data to each of the lighting modules, so as to correctly generate the image. The lighting modules may comprise a data communicator for receiving data from and transmitting data to nearby lighting modules. The lighting modules may be adapted for displaying video information. The display system may be arranged with synchronization means to form a substantially real-time system to display video.